UNIT 5 DOCUMENTARY/CONTENT ANALYSIS
Documentary research is the use of outside sources to support the viewpoint or argument of an academic work. The process of documentary research often involves some or all of conceptualising, using and assessing documents. The analysis of the documents in documentary research would be either quantitative or qualitative analysis (or both). The process is utilised in most academic work (in fact, most high school and certainly college level courses would insist on references in academic work) in supporting the academic prose of the writer.
Documentary research involves the use of texts and documents as source materials; government publications, newspapers, certificates, census publications, novels, film and video, paintings, personal photographs, diaries and innumerable other written, visual and pictorial sources in paper, electronic, or other `hard copy' form. Along with surveys and ethnography, documentary research is one of the three major types of social research and arguably has been the most widely used of the three throughout the history of sociology and other social sciences. It has been the principal method - indeed, sometimes the only one - for leading sociologists. The key issues surrounding types of documents and our ability to use them as reliable sources of evidence on the social world must be considered by all who use documents in their research. The paucity of sources available until now means that this compendium will be invaluable to social researchers." (Scott 2006).
3.2 Merits and Demerits of Documentary Research
The first advantage of such an approach to doing research is that it is usually readily available. The information to be used in documentary research can be accessed by researchers by simply visiting the resource centers or just browsing the internet.
The second advantage is that doing this research is less expensive as compared to surveys and ethnography. For surveys, one has to do a pilot study and then do actual field data collection incurring travelling expenses. Experimentation may involve use of scientific apparatus that have to be purchased. The only costs involved in documentary research may be bureau and miscellaneous expenses.
The third advantage is that some information may only be obtained by secondary sources. For example, information on ancient histories which cannot be found by interview surveys or archaeological data that has been documented but the sites might have changed and can only be obtained from libraries or museum.
Despite the above merits, documentary research has the following limitations;
(i) Information obtained may be biased;
(ii) Personal biases and prejudices could have influenced past work that was documented by authors; (iii) such information may therefore lack credibility and hence research findings based on such work may be discredited.
3.3 Meaning of Content Analysis
Content analysis has been defined as a systematic, replicable technique for compressing many words of text into fewer content categories based on explicit rules of coding. Holsti (1969) offers a broad definition of content analysis as, "any technique for making inferences by objectively and systematically identifying specified characteristics of messages".
However, the technique of content analysis is not restricted to the domain of textual analysis, but may be applied to other areas such as coding student drawings, or coding of actions observed in videotaped studies (Stigler, Gonzales, Kawanaka, Knoll, & Serrano, 1999). In order to allow for replication, however, the technique can only be applied to data that are durable in nature.
Content analysis enables researchers to sift through large volumes of data with relative ease in a systematic fashion. It can be a useful technique for allowing us to discover and describe the focus of individual, group, institutional, or social attention (Weber, 1990). It also allows inferences to be made which can then be corroborated using other methods of data collection. Krippendorff (1980) notes that "such content analysis research is motivated by the search for techniques to infer from symbolic data what would be either too costly, no longer possible, or too obtrusive by the use of other techniques".
3.4 The Merits and Demerits of Content Analysis
Content analysis can be a powerful tool for determining authorship. For instance, one technique for determining authorship is to compile a list of suspected authors, examine their prior writings, and correlate the frequency of nouns or function words to help build a case for the probability of each person's authorship of the data of interest. Mosteller and Wallace (1964) used Bayesian techniques based on word frequency to show that Madison was indeed the author of the Federalist papers;
Foster (1996) used a more holistic approach in order to determine the identity of the anonymous author of the 1992 book Primary Colors.
Additionally, content analysis provides an empirical basis for monitoring shifts in public opinion. Data collected from the mission statements project in the late 1990s can be objectively compared to data collected at some point in the future to determine if policy changes related to standards-based reform have manifested themselves in school mission statements.
Content analysis in particular:
Advantages
i. looks directly at communication via texts or transcripts, and hence gets at the central aspect of social interaction;
ii.can allow for both quantitative and qualitative operations;
iii. can provide valuable historical/cultural insights over time through analysis of texts;
iv. allows a closeness to text which can alternate between specific categories and relationships and also statistically analyses the coded form of the text;
v. can be used to interpret texts for purposes such as the development of expert systems (since knowledge and rules can both be coded in terms of explicit statements about the relationships among concepts);
vi.is an unobtrusive means of analysing interactions and; provides insight into complex models of human thought and language use.
Disadvantages
However, content analysis suffers from several disadvantages, both theoretical and procedural.
i. Content analysis can be extremely time consuming;
ii. is subject to increased error, particularly when relational analysis is used to attain a higher level of interpretation;
iii. is often devoid of theoretical base, or attempts to liberally draw meaningful inferences about the relationships and impacts implied in a study;
iv. is inherently reductive, particularly when dealing with complex texts;
v. tends too often to simply consist of word counts;
vi. often disregards the context that produced the text, as well as the state of things after the text is produced and;
vii. can be difficult to automate or computerise.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
List five advantages and disadvantages of content analysis method.
4.0 CONCLUSION
The documentary method is easy to collect without much stress, but its pitfall is to obey the doctrine of “official secrecy” where it is strictly followed. In the same manner, content analysis provides opportunity for researchers to understand the work of others, even if they are no longer living. It allows for true representation without misconception.
5.0 SUMMARY
This unit has explained the importance of documentary/content analysis method in political science inquiry/ social sciences research. It is important to note that both can be used in a particular research exercise.
What is important is for the user to be mindful of the advantages and disadvantages of these methods of data collection.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
1. Describe documentary analysis/research.3. Differentiate between documentary analysis and content analysis.
4. Mention three advantages and three disadvantages of documentary analysis.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Holsti, O. R. (1969). Content Analysis for the Social Sciences and Humanities; Reading. MA: Addison-Wesley.
Krippendorff, K. (1980). Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Mosteller, F. & D.L. Wallace (1964). Inference and Disputed
Authorship: The Federalist. Reading. Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.
Scott, J. (2006). Documentary Research. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Weber, R. P. (1990). Basic Content Analysis. (2nd ed.). CA: Newbury Park.